In a conventional lease of an asset (such as a car, truck, trailer, construction equipment, construction trailer), a user picks up or has an asset delivered at a specified time, which starts the lease. The user later returns the asset or has that asset picked up by the owner, at the end of the lease. The lease fee for the movable asset is usually determined from the period of time between the start of the lease, when the asset is picked up or delivered, and the end of the lease, when the asset is picked up by the owner or returned to a return location by the user. The user pays a lease fee for the total time between the start and end of the lease. In a conventional lease it may also be possible that the lease terms allow for the asset to be returned to a different location than from the location where the asset was rented, although this may involve additional fees.
It is common for a flat fee to be charged depending on the length of the lease period. For most assets, flat-fee leases generally fall into two categories, short-term and long-term. The lease period in short term leases generally run from hours to weeks, while long term leases generally run from months to years. In short term leases it is common that the shorter the lease period, the higher the relative fee. For example, a one day car rental fee is generally higher than 1/7th of a weekly rental fee. The calendar days on which car rentals occur also affects lease rates, as there are generally lease rate differences between weekend rentals and during the work week rentals. Seasonal differences may also exist, due to increased demand during certain seasons and decreased demand in other seasons. In a long-term lease contract, a user rents an asset for a relatively longer period of time, such as three to five years, compared to the time in a short term lease. In some cases, the lease fee, while being fixed, may also be dependent on the number of miles driven using the asset, in the case of movable assets.
There are many problems inherent with the conventional leasing of assets. For example, it is sometimes difficult for a lessee to initiate a lease because it is not located near a lending location, or because there are a limited number of lending locations. If that is the case, it is difficult or impossible for a lessee to flexibly and effectively use the assets. In order to rent assets according to a clear and economical fee structure, there is a demand for a system which allows assets to be readily accessible by allowed users.
Another problem associated with the lease of assets under a conventional system is the need to transport the asset to the owners storage area at the end of the lease. When the lease is to a lessee who rents a large number of assets, considerable resources are spent transporting assets back to storage areas when the lease expires, only to have those assets later returned to the same customer for a new lease. This results in increased costs, because, depending on the lease arrangement, either the owner of the asset or the lessee has costs associated with transporting assets back to storage yards. It would be desirable to have a system where the lessor does not need to continuously cycle unused assets between a customer and a storage area, while allowing customers to pay on a lease only when the asset is actually used.
Another drawback of conventional lease systems is that they are not structured to allow the use of assets, such as trailers, in different ways. For example, while a trailer can be used to transport goods between sites, it can also be used for storage at a lessee's site. This is a typical use before a holiday, such as prior to the Christmas holidays, when large volumes of merchandise may be shipped from manufacturers to distributors and/or retailers so that they have merchandise readily available to meet the holiday demand. The goods are often stored in trailers until needed to replenish store stocks. As the season progresses and goods are moved from trailers to the stores, empty trailers become available, which, under a conventional lease system, would then need to be transported to the owners storage facility. Otherwise the customer would continue to incur additional rental fees for simply having the trailer on its property. A leasing system which would allow trailers to be used to ship goods, then remain as storage units at the site of the customer, while allowing the customer to be billed only for time the storage unit is used, is highly advantageous.
A number of systems have recently been developed which attempt to overcome some of the potential troubles with the conventional leasing system, but none discloses a complete leasing system with the flexibility of the present invention. Yui, et al. (US20020174077) describe a movable body rental management system that can calculate a fee for leasing a movable body. Each vehicle to be rented, such as a car or bicycle, has the capability to detect its own current position at a specified time interval by use of GPS (Global Positioning System). The system transmits information on the current position of the vehicle to a central station which manages the vehicles. When each of vehicles is rented, the system starts measuring the distance and time the vehicle travels. When the use of the vehicle ends, the lease fee is calculated according to the transmitted traveling distance and traveling time. This application discloses a system for rental fees based on mileage driven and travel time. The application does not describe a lease method or system that considers conditions that start a lease for stationary assets, and does not describe a leasing method or system that uses sensors to establish different lease rates for different types of uses of an asset.
Meunier (US 20020186144) describes an automated vehicle rental system for a fleet of rental vehicles, where the vehicles are geographically distributed and normally parked locked in an unguarded location when not rented. A communications system enables communication to and from the vehicle and user-carried electronic devices. An on-board unit (OBU) located on each vehicle interfaces with the vehicle communications unit and with a door unlocking mechanism. A central reservations, management and location system is linked to a database containing the location and availability of each vehicle and a rate for rental for that vehicle. The central system communicates with the OBU on each vehicle. The user accesses the vehicle using a key borne by the user. This application discloses a system for providing access to vehicles which have an on-board unit linked to a door unlocking mechanism, in which the user has a key to access the vehicle, but does not describe a leasing method or system that uses sensors to start a lease and to establish different lease rates for different types of uses of an asset.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,840 to von Alten describes an access/monitoring/return system with which a user can be permitted to temporarily use a resource such as a rental car. The system can receive user identity information with an identity confirmation device of the resource, confirm the identity of the user with a security device of the resource, provide the user with access to the resource, monitor and record information about use of the resource with a monitoring system of the resource, reacquire the resource from the user, and obtain resource use information from the resource monitoring system of the resource. This system is limited to providing access to rental assets, where information stored by the system is stored locally on the asset and only retrieved when the asset is returned to the rental station, and does not describe a leasing method or system that uses a communications system and sensors to start a lease and to establish different lease rates for different types of uses of an asset.
Quinones, et al. (US20040162063) describe a method and apparatus for conditioning the access of a user of a remotely-accessible device, which tracks and monitors objects, by using a preprogrammed expiration time and date and comparing that to a reliable time and date source, such as a time and date received from a global positioning system receiver, and disabling the processing of signals of the remotely-accessible device if the time and date comparison reveals that the license, service, lease, rental or commodity agreement has expired. This system is limited to providing access to, and return/recovery, of rental assets and does not describe a leasing method or system that uses sensors to start a lease and to establish different lease rates for different types of uses of an asset.
Ehrrnan et al. (US 20050108089) describe an automated vehicle rental system for tracking vehicles in a rental lot and providing information on the status of each vehicle. Each vehicle contains sensors for determining the vehicle mileage, state of the fuel level in the tank and the position of the vehicle in the rental lot. This information is linked to vehicle check out and billing systems. This system is limited to rental conditions of vehicles based on mileage driven and fuel consumption, where the communications that monitors the movement of an asset is relatively short-range and limited to an area surrounding the rental location. There is no provision for starting a lease at a remote location using a long-range communications system or other conditions other than movement, or adjusting the least rate for particular use conditions.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a method and system for the leasing of assets where leaseable assets can be readily accessible to users after a lease is signed. Therefore, what is needed is a system for leasing assets where operating costs are reduced by minimizing manpower needs by remotely monitoring conditions associated with the lease of the asset. The system should also be able to encompass a wide variety of conditions which affect the fees due the owner of the asset by being able to monitor any condition present in the lease. The system should be able to automatically determine payments to the owner of the asset based on conditions of the lease and monitoring of those conditions by sensors on the asset.